This invention relates to the treatment and training of clients who exhibit visual-perceptual and visual-motor deficits following a cerebral vascular accident, head injury, brain tumor, other types of neurological impairments and diseases, opthalmologic injuries, childhood diseases, and learning disability. It may also be used in treatment of apraxia, incorporating tracking motorically as well as visually.
Occupational therapists theorize that for a person to volitionally function in his/her environment he/she must master his/her environment through their relationship with it and its specific components. The task of any goal oriented movement may be done with or without assistance or compensation and may be acquired through the development of a hierarchy of subskills.
Individual occupational therapists who treat such patients try to develop techniques to develop these subskills, but to date no uniform modality has been established which is effective and practical.
A number of United States patents have been issued in the area of eye training.
U.S. Pat. No. 630,859 shows an eye strengthener utilizing a curved member.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,110,344 discloses a device for displaying words.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,451,932 shows an adjustable perimeter target consisting of a curved member with an object that is moved along its surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,744,441 illustrates a curved member with means for measuring angles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,502 discloses a device for making stereoscopic patterns.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,873 shows a chart for measuring and quantifying visual sensitivity.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,379,699 discloses a method and apparatus for improving the reading efficiency of persons with specific dyslexia, involving in part the highlighting of background.
None of the preceding patents teaches the present invention.